I was really excited to try this recipe and then as luck would have it, I got really sick and didn't make it to the Christmas dinner with the dessert!

The base was made from pecans, almonds, nutmeg and brown sugar and smelled really yummy when it was baking. The crust was topped with a layer of bittersweet chocolate and then filled with an eggnog mousse (complete with brandy) and three paper-thin bittersweet chocolate discs (one of which you can see on the top of the cake). I used pearl dusted gumpaste snowflakes and gumpaste lettering to finish off the decorations.

I did end up well enough to have a piece of the leftovers a few days later and it was quite good. Merry Christmas!

After planning to take this course for years, I finally got around to taking a course on making French macarons.

We were paired up in teams of two and each group had to pick their own flavor. After much discussion, we went with hazelnut macarons with a passionfruit ganache filling. If the school had Baileys on hand though, it likely would have been a different flavor we made!

These are coconut macaroons...

These are Italian amaretti macaroons...

And this is the macaron the instructor made. Orange macarons with an orange cardamom ganache filling - yum!

Among the other flavors tried in the class were coffee-chocolate macarons with chocolate-coffee ganache filling, black sesame macarons, lemon and Earl Grey tea macarons and gingerbread macarons with dark chocolate ganache. I'm glad I finally got around to taking this class... now which flavor will I try to make first on my own??!